The Snowball Effect
by Laree England
Summary: Defined as starting in a state of relative insignifigance, then rapidly building into something important and relevant. A series one-shots for showing the snowball effect of the friendships and camaraderie of the characters in Rise of the Guardians.
1. A New Look

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians.**

Jack slid down the rabbit hole and into the Warren. He had found the public entrance a while ago, and visited often. Normally, when he walked into the Warren around Easter, he saw little running eggs throwing themselves into rivers of paint and sliding down design trees. It was to be expected, and it always was the sight that greeted Jack in.

That was, until today.

As Jack strolled inside, he could hear a familiar child's voice echoing off the walls. He scrunched his eyebrows together and rode the wind inside, landing on a higher platform where he could see everything that happened below without being noticed himself. He held his staff as he looked over, until he spotted the blond child.

"Sophie...?"

She was with Bunny, and she had some of his paintbrushes in her hand. She was beaming widely and singing, hopping back and forth between Bunny and the paint river. Bunny's back was to Jack, so he couldn't see what Sophie was painting. Shrugging, he leapt down from his perch, careful not to step on any of Bunny's precious eggs as he walked towards them.

Sophie spotted him first, and her smile grew wider as she waved at him. "Sparkles!" She squealed, laughing.

Jack cringed lightly as Sophie used the nickname she had pegged on him. He smiled for her, though, flashing her his teeth, the reason for his nickname. "Hiya, Soph. How you doing?"

Bunny's body tensed at the sound of Jack's voice. Jack cocked his head to the side and continued forward, Bunny freezing more and more with every step he heard Jack took, but the winter guardian was sure that it wasn't because of his powers. Sophie giggled and clapped her hands together.

"Pretty!" she exclaimed, pointing at Bunny.

Jack bit his lip as he began to understand what was going on. He walked still closer, hoping that his prediction was true. "Bunny...?"

Jack leapt and stood behind Sophie, slapping a hand to his mouth to keep from doubling over with laughter.

"Wow, man, you are one devoted guardian."

Bunny glared up at him with his golden-yellow rimmed eyes. "Oh, rack off."

Bunny's front was completely covered in Easter egg paint. Sophie had used pink as a base, and then she used yellow to paint around Bunny's eyes and on his lips, and blue to paint his cheeks. Jack couldn't stop laughing.

"Very nice, Sophie. You did a _great_ job!" he said enthusiastically, patting her on the back. She giggled and picked up a green brush, stumbling back towards Bunny. Jack gave Bunny a thumbs up, taking a seat on a nearby rock to watch the show.

As Sophie started to paint on Bunny again, he held up a hand, stopping her. He leaned forward to Sophie's ear, whispering. The little blond giggled and turned, teetering towards Jack with her paintbrush. Jack scooted backwards.

"Woah, Sophie, what are you doing?"

"I don't want you to miss out on all the fun, mate," Bunny said, looking a little too smug as he leaned back.

Jack held up a hand as Sophie reached out for his face with the brush. Sophie pulled back, a hurt expression on her face. Sophie's eyes welled up with tears and she blubbered hyperventilating as she began to cry.

"No, no Sophie don't cry..." Jack said.

Jack reached out for her, but she ran from him, toppling into Bunny's arms. Bunny hugged her to his chest, rocking her slightly. Jack fumbled for words, getting more and more frightened the more that Sophie cried.

"Come on, Sparkles," Bunny said, nodding at Sophie. "Make the kid happy."

Jack glared at him. "If you ever bring this up to anyone…"

"You don't say anything, neither will I."

Jack sighed and sat back down, setting his staff to the side and crossing his legs.

"Come on, Sophie. Sparkles is ready," he said, holding his arms out.

Sophie giggled, rubbing her tears off on her sleeve. She hiccuped once and stood up, dunking her brush into a river before beginning on Jack. He froze himself, not moving as the toddler worked around him. Bunny leaned back again, making suggestions and urging Sophie on.

_This_ didn't go as Jack had expected, either. If anything, though he'd never admit it, he actually enjoyed it. They all laughed together, making the best of it. Sophie was smiling the whole time, running around to change Jack's colors to her own personal taste, also touching up Bunny every once in a while. By the end of the day, Jack felt closer to Bunny than he ever had before. By the time that Sophie's eyes were drooping, Jack and Bunny were cracking jokes and playfully shoving each other. When Sophie finally collapsed, Jack's cheeks and sides hurt from laughing so much. They watched Sophie as she slept, admiring how content she looked. As guardians, they felt uplifted from bringing joy to a child, and as comrades, they felt like brothers.

"Not bad," Jack said, giving Bunny a soft smile.

He returned the expression. "Not bad yourself."

A moment of silence passed between them before Jack fell backwards, laughing again.

"Sorry, Bunny, I can't take you seriously with all that makeup."

Bunny shoved Jack with his foot. "You're in the same boat, Sparkles."

Their laughs echoed off of the Warren's walls, and Sandy quietly flew out of his hiding spot, silently laughing as well. He snuck back out through the way that he had come and ascended into the night sky, sending out new dreams with the fresh material he had just been given.


	2. Jack on Technology

**Random bit of rambling from Jack's point of view... If you guys have any suggestions for future rants please share!**

Technology?

I hate it.

It's disheartening to see people walking down the streets with their heads down looking at a little magic box of information. I remember when people actually walked together and talked. Verbally. Out loud. As in they actually used their mouths.

Crazy, right?

They also looked around once in a while if it struck their fancy. They would point out icicles hanging from roofs and stop to admire frost decorating pine trees. I spend a lot of time decorating these places, alright? Seeing a person stop every once in a while to admire the scenery is nice. But now that people would rather watch videos of other people singing in foreign languages and riding invisible horses, I rarely hear any comment about how beautiful their surroundings are.

There's also larger versions of these magic boxes, and those also bug me. Being a guardian, I like seeing people, oh, I don't know... Interact with their kids? But because of these pieces of technology they just stick a screen in front of a child's face and call it good. Whatever happened to dolls and action figures? Things that made kids imagine and create. But, thanks to tablets and computers, I think that there are kids out there who don't even know what real toys are. Parents are also distracted by this technology. I've seen parents spend more time talking to people who aren't there than people that actually are, like their kids. It makes me ache for the old days...

But however much I dislike all the things listed above, there's one thing that still makes my skin crawl to see...

Headphones. You all have probably noticed that when a person has got one of those things shoved into their ears they can't hear you? Be it intentional or unintentional, I'm sure you all probably find it annoying when you're trying to talk to someone and they have those things blocking their hearing. Well, I hate headphones for similar reasons. However, when you're a guy that is invisible to people anyway, and you have a scare like I did, the hatred is slightly elevated.

What scare? Oh, let me tell you...

Jamie's sixteen. Prime age to be submersed in all of this tech, but so far he's managed to steer clear of most of it. He still reads books and goes outside and snowboards. He appreciates my snow.

This age is also a opportune time for another thing to happen, if it hasn't happened already... to stop believing.

On this particular day, Jamie was walking home from school. It was to be the first day of winter in Burgess, and I hadn't seen Jamie in quite a while, so I decided to pay him a visit. He was walking down the sidewalk when I spotted him. With a light snowfall I fell into step next to him, waiting for him to notice me. His eyes were trained downwards (not at a phone, thank you very much) so he didn't see me. I waited for a bit before getting too giddy and taking a stab at talking to him.

"Hey, Jamie!" I would have said something more brilliant, but I was just too excited to be with him that I didn't waste my time.

Jamie continued to walk, not showing any sign of hearing me.

"Jamie? Come on man stop messing with me."

Silence.

"...Jamie?"

When he didn't respond for a third time, my stomach dropped. I stopped in my tracks, watching as Jamie continued on as if nothing happened. I had seen this before with Bunny on that Easter six years ago... when kids stop believing.

"J...J..." I stuttered.

Jamie had stopped believing. _My_ Jamie. I couldn't believe it. I guess I couldn't expect kids to believe forever, but this was _Jamie_ we were talking about...

"JAMIE!" I screamed.

Jamie jumped and spun around, his eyes landing on me.

"What?" he said, pulling headphones out of his ears.

I'm actually surprised I was able to keep a level head after that. I really kept my cool, you know? I just made sure that the vile object in his possession was run over by a dump truck... and gave him a lecture screamo style... and hugged him and didn't let go even though people were staring at him...

So, to answer your question, I hate technology.

And there's nothing wrong with that...

Right?


End file.
